Categories
Apple

WWDC 2008 Predictions

And the a tradition continues. Here’s my predictions for WWDC 2008. Steve Jobs will announce the following:

iPhone 3G

Well duh. At this point if it’s not at least announced, Apple’s stock is going to tank. There’s a ton of stuff to back this up including AT&T telling employees not to take vacation in the near future. And mystery shipments of presumed iPhones. I’ve got a good idea what the technical specs will likely be.

AT&T Subsidy

AT&T will likely subsidy the new iPhone when purchased with a 2 year contract to help lower the price and encourage more people to buy it. This is looking even more likely as the economy declines and potential buyers may now be more hesitant.

.mac to become me.com and mobileme.com

.mac will finally die and be replaced with me.com and mobileme.com. I suspect mobileme.com will be free for iPhone users. me.com may be paid if Apple does it in-house, or free if they contract the functionality out to someone like Google (which is likely).

Mac OS X 10.6 Insights

I don’t think we’ll see it until at least late 2009, more likely early 2010, and I doubt Steve will suggest any faster of a timeline. Remember after 10.3 the plan was slower OS releases. I suspect it will stay that way. I don’t think Apple likes the idea of two Mac OS X branches, the mobile and desktop one. I suspect 10.6 will be an effort to “unify” the platform at least from a marketing perspective. Starting from WWDC 2008 onwards I suspect a “Mac OS X powered phone” will be more common branding. Again Apple’s goal is to sell computers. Using the iPhone as a method to sell the desktop experience is pretty obvious. But what does that mean for the OS? Likely a lot of focus on things like Sync, the future of tech (64bit, multi-core, intel) and blurring the distinction between phone and computer. I don’t think we’ll see much more than a little eye candy and some buzz words considering we’re not far from Leopards release. Just enough to get the press talking about it.

New Desktops / Laptops

I don’t think Apple plans any desktop/laptop announcements just yet, I suspect they will hold off until August as tradition. At that point pretty much all of Apple’s computer lines are due for a major overhaul. I suspect the MacBook Pro may be the first to experience a major design change. Apple desperately needs a mid-range tower to build more market share as the Mac mini is under powered and the Mac Pro is very expensive. If anything is announced I suspect it will be just that.

Special Guests

No idea who the special guests will be. If the new iPhone is based on Atom, I suspect an Intel Exec. Other than that, really don’t know. Likely an iPhone developer or two will make an appearance during the iPhone Apps part. No clue on musical guest.

So there you have it. We’ll see Monday what I got right.

Categories
Apple Hardware

Apple’s Early Announcement

So yesterday Apple announced the new 8-core Mac Pro and Xserve. Both beautiful machines anyone would love to own. What’s peculiar is the timing of the announcement. Only a week before MacWorld 2008. Right in the middle of CES. Why would Apple make a product announcement before it’s yearly big expo? During a period where tech news is in excess?

I predict some big announcements next week. Apple make these releases early for three reasons:

  1. So that there are 2 less things stealing the thunder from next weeks announcements.
  2. To show the industry that it can steal attention from something as big as CES at by merely sending out a press release for an upgraded product.
  3. Appetizer.
Categories
Apple Funny Hardware

Mac Pro Disected

I think I just shorted out my keyboard with drool looking at these pictures of a Mac Pro being closely examined. Oh boy is that one amazing system.

Also note this parody of the Apple commercials.

Categories
Apple

1100 Dual 2GHz G5’s

Yummy. Tech Porn. Boy would I like to tap some of that computing power. VT might be the coolest school now that they got a cluster going.

A great quote:

Project started back in February; secret with Dell because of the pricing issues; dealt with vendors individually because bidding wars do not drive the prices down in this case.

I would like to have 1 of those. Just 1. Besides, 1199 is a cooler looking number anyway. What do you say VT? πŸ˜‰

Edit: Math mistake above πŸ˜€ Should be 1099. Damn.

Categories
Apple

VT To Build G5 Super Computer

It’s official, since it hit slashdot earlier today. VT is building a supercomputer out of G5’s.

Wow, that must be pretty sweet.

Wonder why they aren’t waiting for G5 Xserve’s. Would save some space. Then again, maybe that’s what these are? Sneek peeks? Advanced boxes? Perhaps we shall see some officially in January? Perhaps Apple is holding off on them, so that they get some attention in January, and to focus ad $’s for the G5 Desktop.

Either way… NICE πŸ˜€